The last flight
by Iceburn
Summary: Last flight of the Swat kats


The last flight  
  
.....Old story polished of and reloaded..... I uploaded it earlier, but FFN seems to eat the little "" I used to separate chapters, so here's a new try...  
  
By Iceburn, August 2002.  
  
This fic is based on the "A bright and shiny future"-episode. We all know that in this future, the Swat Kats are dead. But what happened before that last flight? The Swat Kats belongs to Hanna- Barbera, no money are made from this, etc...  
  
.....  
  
The sun was hanging right above the horizon over the swamp. The swamp was a hostile place to live, even for the mosquitoes and snakes that populated it. But for two cats that lived there, it was paradise. Nothing metallic could come here. The ground-robots would immediately sink into the wobbly ground and the stunted threes and plants kept the airborne ones from landing. The thick fog was almost impossible to see through and made it unnecessary to camouflage any structures. Even the Turbocat.  
  
..... T-bone was running through a deserted Megacat city alone and the shining metal monsters were in every shadow, every corner wherever he ran. He was out of breath and the sound of his troubled breathing, the bare feet against the asphalt and the monsters metallic whispering was the only sounds he could hear. Until a familiar voice broke through and made him slide to a halt.  
  
"You're so busy saving yourself. But what about me?" Razor stepped from the deep shadows into the dim light. His old buddy pointed accusingly at him and they sunk deeper and deeper into a darkness where Darkkat, Dr. Viper and all the other dead villains waited for him...  
  
T-bone sat up abruptly. His heart was pounding and he was soaked in sweat.  
  
"Another nightmare." He told himself out loud. Not that it really calmed him down. The cat, once known as Chance Furlong stretched and yawned. The G- suit might be perfect for flying, but it was stiff and uncomfortable to sleep in and he felt as tired as last night when he went to sleep. This place didn't make it any better. Their new home was build inside a cluster of strange threes, build with one room cut out of the wild branches and twigs. Cut off plants made the floor and prevented the water from soaking everything. But the fog made everything moist and the stench of composting mud was nauseating. T-bone looked around to find his best buddy missing and he scooped up the helmet he used as a pillow and went outside to join Razor. The sight of the Turbocat always filled him with a odd mixture of pride and sadness. He was proud of the beautiful and powerful machine and trusted it as much as he trusted Razor. But at the thought of how it used to look shining in the sun, he always felt sad and guilty. The black, blue and red paint was covered in scratches, bruises and mud. As scars of endless fighting with other machines.  
  
"The only jet that still serves Katkind" Razor once called it. T-bone walked over the wobbly mud to the raft the Turbocat floated on. He let a paw glide over the uneven surface of the jet and sighed.  
  
"I'm sorry" He whispered. Sorry for the cats living in slavery, for the dead enforcers, for Razor, for their jet, for having to live in a swamp and for not being any help at all. For fighting a long lost battle. No matter what they did, they could only annoy Mac and Molly. For every robot they destroyed, the poor cat-slaves had to build another dozen. He ought to have seen it coming, if only they had evacuated the garage in time, they would still have weapons and fuel, and the tools they needed so badly. Now they had to steal them from the Metalicats bases under great risks. Razors limping told the sad story of those missions. A laser beam through his right leg and T-bone had nearly lost his partner. Razor wouldn't show how bad he felt, apart from the massive blood loss he also fought bacteria infection in the horrible wound and he couldn't get sterile gauze or anything resembling it. They both had major injuries but Razors leg seemed to never heal. If only they had evacuated... Razor was working on straightening out the left side of the Turbocats bend tail. T-bone had to compensate at all time to even keep the machine in the air and it was getting too dangerous under attack.  
  
"Morning, buddy. You ought to rest." T-bone greeted him. He was worried for his smaller friend. Razor had lost weight and the homemade bandage around his leg was already full of blood, even though Razor changed it every morning.  
  
"Morning, T-bone. Is it grocery day, or can we try the radio controller again?" T-bone frowned as Razor ignored his concern. Even through the fur, mud and dried up blood on Razors face, he looked pale. T-bone sighed, dropped the subject and shook his head.  
  
"We have to get more fuel." Grocery day was their term for having to fly out and steal more fuel and explosives from the robots. Yesterday they had tried to knock out the radio transmitter near the tower, but the air was nearly alive from missiles and laser beams and they had to turn tail and back off. One of the beams had hit the tail wing and bend it, and the sudden change of aerodynamics had nearly hurled them into the ground. Grocery day. They both hated the thought. The fuel stations were better guarded than any of the military targets, since the Metallicats knew the Swat Kats were short of fuel and that they would strike there.  
  
Silently the two cats began working on the new bruises and trying to make the engine run at it best. Since the catastrophe at the hanger, there had been no more to say. The robots had gone for the garage to get the metal for spare parts. They had been millimetres from being captured and only got away in their uniforms and with the Turbocat. They had both been in the basement, working on the Cyclotrone when the alarm went off. They had only their own ground wired and were warned in the very last second, when fifty or sixty robots suddenly entered the salvage yard from the empty ground next to. They had to escape to avoid destroying the Turbocat. No time to take their missiles, fuel or gloveatrixes with them. From the jet Razor had set off the explosives that took all of the robots out. The Metallicats had been there and Mac had his left arm ripped off. Of course they just made a new one for him, but for a few days he walked around with only one arm and was downright pissed.  
  
Both cats climbed into the jet and the sight of how Razor squirmed at the movement, made T-bone promise himself that this time he wouldn't leave until he found some medical equipment. There had to be somewhere he could find it. Even in a city of metal. The Turbocat coughed and strained and then lifted into the sky. This would be another regular day. Trying to work on the Turbocat and then off to fight the Metallicats. Like every other day.  
  
.....  
  
The Turbocat made a sudden roll and the missiles hit the nearby building. Bits of cement rained down on the cat-like robots on the ground, but they kept firing their lasers at the fleeing machine. The other missiles fell out of the sky as they lost contact with the fast jet. Inside the Turbocat was now a precious cargo of fuel and explosives. T-bone sighed in relief. It had gone surprisingly smoothly and he had even got a bag that looked like an old first-aid pack. For the first time in months, he felt a little hope.  
  
"Maybe we could organise a attack on the radio tower with Feral and the enforcers." Razor said as the new cargo was secured in the right place inside the Turbocat.  
  
"The guy hates us, Razor!" T-bone protested. "He would never work with us."  
  
"He's stubborn, not stupid. Even he must be able to see that this is hopeless!" Razor stated. T-bone thought about it for a moment.  
  
"With some ground support it would be easier for us to reach the radio transmitter, and with that one out, we could do surprise attacks on them..." T-bone smiled for the first time since the Metalicats took over the city. "Okay, let's see if we can find Feral and..."  
  
"Behind us, T-bone! Look out!" Razor interrupted him. A whole squadron of flying robots emerged from a anonymous-looking building and headed straight for the plane.  
  
"They're in front of us too! It's a trap!" T-bone snarled and let the plane climb upwards. The robots followed easily and sent out a stream of missiles and laser beams. Razor fired as fast as he could, but there seemed to be no end to the robots. The attack slowly, but surely pushed them towards the city where more robots waited for them. Without warning, a tower blasted out a stream of laser beams, the two Swat Kats had been busy with all the flying robots and was caught by surprise. The first lasers sliced though the right wing and the plane shook uncontrollable. The next ones hit the right side of the jet near the cockpit and made metal bits spring off and ricochet inside the cockpit.  
  
T-bone swore under his breath and fought to stabilise the plane. He did a loop and tried not to hit a building and be hit by the other robots at the same time. Razor send a missile into the tower and watched it blow up with a smug feeling inside. But the damage was done; the right wing was on fire and let out a trail of smoke. Something tickled down T-bones brow, he wiped it of with a claw and was surprised to see it was blood. He was determined not to tell Razor until he looked down and saw his G-suit and fur cowered in growing red spots.  
  
"Crud! I'm hit!" He gasped, surprised that the wounds were numb, which he found more disturbing than being hit at all.  
  
"T-bone! Talk to me buddy, are you okay?" Razor asked and send out a horde of slicer missiles at the same time.  
  
"Those metal splinters..." T-bone was cut of as Razor gasped; a missile was heading straight for them. A heat seeker, no doubt. His fingers flew over the control panels but he had nothing to bring it down with. Four plain old missiles shot out from the Turbocat, but the heat seeker dodged easily and continued.  
  
"Oh, crud!" They both gasped. The heat seeker hit the left side of the plane and the explosion send a deafening shock into the cabin. The Turbocat spun wildly in the air and the shriek of shredded metal sounded like a wounded animal. There were robots all over, it was impossible to land and suicide to eject.  
  
"Oh hell, we're dead anyway." T-bone mumbled, beginning to feel cold from the chock and the blood loss.  
  
"Head for the tower!" Razor poked his head around T-bones pilot seat and pointed. T-bone used all his strength to pull the Turbocat to the left and made a soft turn. The tower, home of the Metalicats was growing bigger and bigger in front of them.  
  
"With love from the Swat Kats!" Razor yelled and T-bone grinned his trademark smirk. The Turbocat was loaded with fuel and explosives and worked like a giant missile. The explosion lit up the entire city and blasted out every item in the tower. Including Mac and Molly who suddenly found themselves in scrap- condition in a dumpster in front of a slave camp.  
  
......  
  
No major bits were found of the Turbocat, but there were no doubt that the Swat Kats were dead and gone. But the poor cat slaves kept telling the story of the two heroes around the fire. As a memory of better times, the Swat Kats would never die. Someone even whispered that some day, the Swat Kats would return and save the city once again. 


End file.
